Come talk to me about the 4 month sleep regression.

[Neeko]

DD2 was 4 months on Thursday. Since then (how did she know? ) she has started waking in the night and being awake for up to 2 hours at a time.This goes on all night.I think we had about 3.5hrs sleep on Thursday and about an hour more on Fri. She previously used to wake once, feed (BF) and go back to sleep.
When she is awake she's hyper, pumping her legs continually and shouting out. She does feed but isn't really that interested. She sleeps in a crib in our room in gro-bag and we have blackout curtains.

Does this sound like sleep regression? How long is it likely to last and is there anything I can do to help?

Thanks

sorry about the typo's last night wasn't such a good night We tried her on some new food and she was uncomfortable...(write's note never to give dd parsnip again)

at all of you with DHs that help with settling etc!!

Well, we had the best nights sleep for weeks - she had about 3 ounces of formula before bed (as well as usual long BF), went down at eight and slept through till 4am! Then a quick feed and slept in bed with me till 7. Result!!

Have no idea if it was the formula or just the end of the sleep regression phase . .. or even if it will be the same tonight. Fingers crossed! She is 18 weeks this Tuesday.

Our DD is doing a little better, swings an roundabouts though, today wouldn't sleep until 3pm, and then only for 20 mins, but rolled over today for the first time, so heres hoping that helps. She is also teething, but has been settling herself to sleep much more than she ever used to - not consistently, but mostly can manage it. this I think is helping, plus we dumped the dummy, so she sucks her thumb to soothe herself to sleep - like a revelation the first time she did it!
Still waiting for the elusive full nights sleep though! still waking every 3 hrs, and then a lot more from 3am onwards..BF back to sleep is the only thing I have felt brave enough to do, can face trying to get her back to sleep any other way at night, its just so easy to feed her.
off to give madam a bath, then to bed - fingers crossed! good luck to everyone!

Hi

I'm totally gatecrashing your thread here, and you all seem to be doing a really good job of encouraging each other... but just a bit of further encouragement...

My DS (now 9 months) went through the 4 month sleep regression and it lasted about 6 weeks where he would wake every 2 hours thoughout the night, every single night. I was exhausted, stressy, emotional etc and was getting to the point where I felt I couldn't cope. DS was entirely BF so no one else could help re-settle him as he always thought he was hungry. Even after those 6 weeks he still woke 2-3 times a night for a while. Well, to cut a long story short- after a bit of CC (very gentle and wasn't half as bad as I thought), more solids and general moving around more in the day it got loads better around 7 months. Now he goes through the night apart from a dream feed.

I truly thought my life was over and I would never sleep again. It felt like it would never end, BUT IT DID, and I look back now and think- where did that time go? Was it really that bad?!!! It's awaful at the time, but it does pass!

Hi

Just need to vent too. DD is 14 weeks and EBF. From about 10 weeks to 12 weeks she was fairly reliably sleeping 10-3 and then waking at about 5 and 6:30. At 12 weeks she started a growth spurt and began waking 2 hourly in the night. We have been trying with limited success to bring bedtime forward so she is now going something like 8:45-10 and then waking 1-2 hourly. Sometimes it is possible to resettle her by holding her hands offering a dummy and shushing, but mostly she needs to feed back to sleep. We have a bedtime routine which normally ends with her dozing off during a feed and being put down, although I then need to stay with her to settle her properly.

The growth spurt seems to have stopped now and she is able to go 2.5-3 hourly between daytime feeds. But nights remain horrible.

Last night she went 8:45-9:30, 9:30-11 and then just screamed from 11 until 12:30, then had to be resettled every 30-45 mins through the night until 5:40 when I fed her and she began the screaming again.

I'm slightly reassured that developmental leaps may cause this kind of distress as that does seem plausible. DD has just started rolling and finding her feet.

But we seem to have gone straight through the 3m growth spurt and into the 4m sleep regression without even a single night of non-chaos in between.

Overall I'm guessing we're just going to have to stick this one out and hope she calms down again soon. The big difficulty is that in the early weeks I did the nightfeeds and DH would then swap sides with me in the bed and settle DD, by keeping a hand on her and shushing her. But she has recently worked out who is who and if DH tries to settle her she just screams until I come back. So there is no way to divide the work. In fact the best sleep I've had lately has been when DH was away because he snores and our house is old and noise carries in it, so if he goes into another room to sleep I can still hear him but can't poke him to make him roll over. Most nights I lie there with one hand on DD to keep her settled and one knee pressed up against his back to stop him rolling onto his back and listen to the two of them squeaking and snuffling, and try to remember that people cannot help how they behave once asleep and that snoring is not fundamentally evil.

I don't think I want advice (unless there is something really obvious I am missing) just sympathy.

Hi,

Am gatecrashing if you dont mind. DD is 15 weeks and has just started the sleep regression i think, last night she was awake between 3-4.30 wide awake, she wast crying just wide awake little madam. I refuse to give her a feed every time she wakes as i did this with DD1 who is now 8 and she woke about 4-5 times a night for milk until she was 2.
She is currently in the room with us still in moses basket and need to go in herown roon in her cot but i have a cat and am very afraid that the cat will go in with her, we cannot use a stairgate on her room as her doorway is too narrow so i need some ideas of how to keep the cat out if anyone has any, i relay dont feel comfortable shutting her door but do have a heart beat monitor and sound one so could this be my only option, does anyone else do this. I realy wanted the cot in our room until she was 6 months but our room is to small so it wont fit in.

|right little one is moaning wants to be glued to me at all times so must go see to her.

Hi all and lots of sympathy for those of you who are still up and down all night.
We've had a few good nights with DD2 including a couple of 8-6 which is fab. Night before last she was awake between 1-4.30am and I thought we were back to square one, but last night was the best ever. She slept from 7.45-6.15 and I slept from 9.30-6. Normally if she sleeps well DD1 is up or my DH is snoring, but nothing woke me last night.

Think it's definitely time to put her in her own room and I'm going to try that tomorrow night.

Veronicacake Have you tried breatheasy strips for your DH? Maybe getting him to wrap his hand in a top you've been wearing would trick the lo and allow him to settle her?

Ray I'd definitely close the door as the monitor will pick up. Don't know much about cats but could you get some kind of roomy cage for the hours that you're asleep or shut her in another room? Just a thought.

Oh God, I know how you feel VeronicaCake! DH isn't a snorer but he tosses and turns, and when I go to pick DD out of her cot he immediately rolls over into my space and he's sooo hard to shift! I get proper night time rage with him!!

Anyway, nights are still horrendous here (bottle of formula idea not working now) - she was wide awake for an hour from 1.30am, didn't want more milk and I had no idea how else to settle her. She ended up in my bed (I do follow the co-sleeping rules so feel ok with this but would really rather have the grown-ups bed for DH and me!)

Also, it's now taking a good 2 hours to settle her down for the night from about 7.30pm onwards.

She is 18 weeks now - when will this end!!